Yes, crazy story indeed. I've updated my blog with details of the no.11 player for Côte d'Ivoire. The Ivorians insist that the Gabonese team confused Nahi Marie José (presumably this no.11 player that South Africa were concerned about) with Salimata. A google search brings up only 2 results for this name - which is strange - but there is another player (also an attacker) with the name Nahi (Nahi Estelle - also known as 'Adebayor') who missed the first leg of the Côte d'Ivoire v Gabon match. Reason? Lack of passport... Surely not the same player. Surely? Well she also played for Côte d'Ivoire in 2007 against Senegal, and was reported as "Josee Estelle Nahi". So, at some point in between, she has not renewed her passport, apparently... This could open up a huge can of worms though. I've read a report from The Monitor in Uganda that mentions the names of 2 Ugandan women who played in the 2000 African Women's Championship and who subsequently defected to DR Congo to gain citizenship there and were drafted into that country's national team for an African Championship qualifier against Zambia in 2006. To make matters more difficult, the two players also changed their names.
Up to FIFA to decide, but if they find them guilty and let them stay in the tournamnet they will add fines, But it is FIFA so anything from fines and disqualifing the players to ban Equitorial Guinea from all International play for several years are fully within the scope of possible punishmnet. I think it very much depend on if FIFA decide it was made by mistake or if was a deliberate try to trick FIFA.
Renee Richards Renee Richards was born male and captain of the Yale University's Men's Tennis Team, before undergoing a sex change. "Richards was barred from playing as a woman in the U.S. Open in 1976 unless she submitted to chromosomal testing. She sued the United States Tennis Association, and in 1977 she won the right to play as a woman without submitting to any testing." "Her greatest successes on court were reaching the doubles final at the U.S. Open in 1977 with Betty Ann Stuart — the pair lost a close match to Martina Navratilova and Betty Stöve — and winning the 35-and-over women's singles." Welcome to the 21st century of women's sport.
I have nothing against transgendered men which are now women in women's sport, but they should be biological women otherwise it would be unfair.
But when would anyone considered someone as a full "biological women", is it a matter of DNA (X&Y or X&X), or the counting of estrogen in someones methabolism? It's clear for me that there will always stand the possibility that a gender change could be done on the basis, not of a trully desire for crossing the line for someones realization, joy and happines, but for money and fame through sport succes. Damn, this is a hard issue.
Nigeria/Equatorial Guinea: AWC Gender Controversy - Falcons' Coach Wants CAF to Probe Equatorial Guinea "CAF should do something about Equatorial Guinea so that Africa will not be embarrassed at the World Cup final next year in Germany," she said." http://allafrica.com/stories/201011160851.html
Cute. http://pitchinvasion.net/blog/2009/08/11/football-age-real-age-and-the-meanings-of-age-in-africa/ Onmonya writes it is not uncommon in Nigeria for players to have as many as ten years difference between their football age and their real age: “A friend of mine who once played in the Nigerian league with Jigawa Stars told me his real age was thirty four two years ago but his football age was twenty one. [Onmonya] explains that “You can walk into any immigration office in Nigeria today, forge documents at the nearby business centre, change your name, place of birth, date of birth, pay seven to ten thousand naira instead of the official price of about five thousand five hundred naira for international passport and within hours you have completed the whole process.”
It is a hard issue. True hermaphrodites have xxxy chromosomes. I believe the Caster Semeya case may be useful here -- didn't dna show she's a true hermaphrodite? Also, what about transgendered men (ie born biologically a woman but transitioned to male) who pass drug testing for "performance enhancements" (ie they haven't done the drug portion of their transition but still look "manly")? In the USA, an NCAA women's basketball player is a transgender male who is putting off the drugs to stay eligible.
It seems that Nigeria's Uche Eucharia will be the first woman to coach an African team in the Women's World Cup.
Vicente Engonga was Equatorial Guinea male trainer , and he resigned because federation wanted to impose him brazilian or foreigner players. Actual Equatorial Guinea male nathional team is composed by spanish born players of equatoguinean origin , and now they want to full their team with foreigners of 0% equatoguinean origin. They arent able to develope their football , and they buy players to win , and this female equatoguinean team is an example of it. I dont think that many of them are really equatoguineans.Could anybody put equatoguinean squad in this tournament?.
Equatorial Guinea striker Genoveva Anonma has rejected claims that they fielded male players in this month's African Women's Championship in South Africa. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/9213187.stm
Of the original squad of 21, at least 13 were naturalised - I couldn't find information on the others. 1 YAO HAOUA - Burkina Faso (has played for Burkina Faso national team) 2 BRUNA AMARANTE DA SILVA - Brazil 3 GHISLAINE NKE NOAH 4 CAROLINE CONCEICAO MARTINS PEREIRA - Brazil 5 SIMPORE BILINGUISA - Burkina Faso 6 DOCELINE THEOLORE - Played in Singapore league in 2007/08 - not sure if she is naturalised or not 7 NNABUGWU BLESSING DIALA- Nigeria 8 SIMPORE SALIMATA - Burkina Faso (has played for Burkina Faso national team) 9 CHUIGOUE DORINE NINA - Cameroon 10 GENOVEVA AYONGMAN 11 OBONO ABESO NATALIA 12 SINFOROSA EYANG 13 NGUI ENGONGA LUCRECIA 14 DE SANTANA BARBOSA JUMARIA - Brazil 15 OKORO GLORIA CHINASA - Nigeria 16 JADE BOHO SAYO - Spain (played for Spain U-19 in 2004 Euro Championship) 17 BILLE ESONO TECLAIRE 18 SILVA DA PAIXAO MIRIAM - Brazil 19 NDIAYE FATOUMATA - Senegal? 20 DANDARA BESSA DOS SANTOS - Brazil 21 ADA ENVO JACINTA What makes tracking them difficult is that the spelling of the names changes quite often, as does what name they actually use and what order the names go in. GHISLAINE NKE NOAH is also known as SALOME NKE NOAH for example, BILINGUISSA SIMPORE has been known as BILGUISSA, BINGUISSA and BALKISSA. DOCELINE THEOLORE has been known as DOCELINE THEOLORE N'DJOUANANG and DOCELINE LORENA and DOCELINE THEO LORENA JOUANANG Salimata Simporé is, according to the squad submiited to CAF, 23 years old. So she played for Burkina Faso as a 20 year old. This means that ordinarily, using the rules at the time, she might have been allowed to switch nationality before 21 - but as already pointed out, she had already appeared for Equatorial Guinea as a 19 year old.
But that aside, Simpore was the best player on the Equatorial Guinea side, so how come she is not playing for any female clubside? Genoveva Anonma, who emerged the top scorer in the last edition of the competition, plays for USV of Jena, Germany. Jade Boho, the creative midfielder who marshaled the Equatorial Guinea midfield engine room, plays for Rayo Vallecano of Spain and won the Women Under 19 World Cup with Spain before switching to Equatorial Guinea. But what is the profile of Simpore and where does she ply her trade? If she is that good and she is a woman she should be in high demand among female soccer clubs! One of her goals in the recent competition was a ballistic wonder that would have beaten any male goalkeeper. http://allafrica.com/stories/201011220996.html
According to Wikipedia, she plays for Princesses FC of Burkina Faso... According to the CAF teamsheet, she plays for "Liso". Liso can mean "blank" in Spanish, so maybe it just meant she had no team.....
Equatorial Guinea's football federation (Feguifoot) says claims that the country fielded male players in its women's side are "defamation". The team finished second in the African Women's Championship (AWC) and have qualified for next year's World Cup. Feguifoot condemned the claims and said a "defamation campaign" had been "led by some African Federations". http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/9221711.stm
Nigeria complain to Caf over Equatorial Guinea players "Caf says that Nigeria are the only country to have made a complaint and that the issue will be dealt with primarily by their sports medicine group. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/africa/9227770.stm
CAF confirms gender protest against E. Guinea "CAF says in a brief statement “the player in question” played for Equatorial Guinea in the recent African Women’s Championship in South Africa, but did not identify the player." http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/news?slug=ap-africa-genderdispute
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2010/11/26/sp-soccer-gender-caf.html Jiri Dvorak, FIFA's chief medical officer, said the body recommends setting up a panel of medical experts, including a gynecologist or urologist, endocrinologist, psychologist and sports physician, to examine each case — putting players through tests similar to those reportedly undergone by Semenya. CAF has not outlined what procedure, if any, will be followed by its Sports Medicine Committee, but Dvorak said the issue of gender verification is "complex." "If there is a justified query then we have proposed a procedure for gender verification for players of both genders ... to protect the dignity and privacy of the individual and also to ensure a level playing field for all players," Dvorak told The Associated Press. "In contrast with cheating with doping, this is a completely different issue. The situation is complex. No short cuts are justifiable."